1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool useful for forming splices between longitudinally successive beads of adhesive in seams between adjacent sheets of flooring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In laying sheets of flooring, such as linoleum, it is common practice to join adjacent sheets of flooring using beads of adhesive laid down in grooves formed at the abutting edges of adjacent sheets of flooring. The beads of adhesive are formed by melting thermoplastic adhesive rods using a seam sealing welding gun or tool. The rods are fed into a welding rod receiving tube of a hollow heating nozzle or tip mounted on the front end of a handheld seam sealant adhesive welding gun. The extremity of the welding rod closest to the flooring is melted in the melting chamber of the heating nozzle and flows into a groove or channel previously formed along the abutting edges of two adjacent sheets of flooring. As the adhesive welding gun is moved past the adhesive dispensed into the groove the adhesive hardens and joins the edges of the abutting sheets of flooring together. This process, and certain tools for performing it, are described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,656,126; 6,640,446; and 6,871,013, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
The sticks of adhesive rods used in this process are typically about 12 to 18 inches in length. While the adhesive is often sold in continuous rolls, it is not practical to seal adjacent sheets of flooring with a single continuous bead dispensed in a single pass along the entire length of the seam. This is impossible because the installer must interrupt the seam sealing process in order to establish a better position for holding the seam sealing gun as the installer moves along the length of the seam. Consequently, the beads of sealant in a long seam cannot be formed from a single, continuous length of sealant material. Rather they are formed of sections of the adhesive rod spliced together at longitudinal intervals along the length of the seam. Typically an installer will be able to lay continuous beads of sealant into a groove at the interface between adjacent sheets of flooring a maximum of about 36 inches before terminating the section of sealant laid and lifting the seam sealing tool from the floor. For a 12 foot room this means there will be at least three splices along the length of the seam.
As the installer forms the splice or transition from one length of a section of sealant to the next, the end of the length of sealant bead last laid down has typically cooled before the melted adhesive from the next stick of adhesive is laid on top of it. As a result, there is a visible demarcation between the ends of the sequential lengths of adhesive, even though the splice between them is physically secure.
To reduce the visibility of the transition between sequential lengths of adhesive, an installer will sometimes use a narrow chisel like hand tool to attempt to create an inclined slope on the end of the bead of the adhesive already laid down. While the creation of such an incline in the length of the adhesive lying in the groove between the adjacent sheets of flooring does result in a reduced visibility of the splices if expertly done, the process is both tedious and difficult to perform without damaging the edges of the adjacent sheets of flooring.
Whether or not the installer attempts to reduce the visibility of the splices between sequentially joined lengths of adhesive bead, a portion of the bead protrudes above the level of the flooring sheets once the seam is completed. This upwardly projecting portion of the bead of sealant is removed in a subsequent process called “skiving”. Skiving can be performed with a conventional skiving knife or other tool that removes the part of the bead lying above the plane of the adjacent flooring sheets. The top of the portion of the adhesive bead joining the sheets of flooring that remains in the groove then resides in coplanar relationship with the adjacent sheets of flooring that the seam joins together.
One primary object of the present invention is to provide a tool that is able to quickly, reliably and easily create a slope on the end of a congealed bead of sealant laid into a groove at a seam between adjacent sheets of flooring seam so as to reduce the visibility of a splice subsequently formed with the next sequential length of sealant.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tool that shaves and tapers the end of a length of solidified sealant lying in a groove formed between adjacent sheets of flooring without damaging the abutting edges of the flooring to be sealed together.
A further object of the invention is to provide a tool that shaves the end of a length of solidified sealant lying in a groove formed at the abutting edges of adjacent sheets of flooring upwardly and at an inclination. Such a tapered, inclined surface allows the installer to create a splice that is both stronger, due to the increased area of surface contact between the sequential lengths, and less visible after the skiving operation is completed.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a tool for creating an inclined splicing surface at the end of an adhesive bead in a groove between abutting sheets of flooring that may be easily aligned with the end of the next bead section.